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One little-noticed item amid the fight over Obamacare and the government shutdown that resulted from it is the fact that Congress members and their staffs now will have to go to the exchanges to get insured.

Further, they can’t just settle for the cheapest plan available, at least according to the federal Office of Personnel Management.

The Hill reported on Thursday that OPM notified Congress that only “gold” tier plans will be available. These plans generally are more expensive, with 90% of expenses covered and 10% paid by the policyholder. It cited a fact sheet issued by the OPM.

One of the more noteworthy items out in the Twittersphere this afternoon was a series of Tweets from Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who’s suggesting that instead of President Obama’s health-care overhaul, Americans should be offered a chance at the same benefits that Congress gets.

Issa is calling for the expansion of the Federal Employee Health Benefits program, or FEHBP, which he says is a free-market system. But as Business Insider points out, the FEHBP looks a lot like Obamacare in that it sets up a marketplace for private insurers to clamor for policyholders.

Buyers of the online medical insurance broker may not be that prescient, but for now they seem to be when it comes to President Obama’s health-care overhaul. It was in doubt on Thursday when EHealth shares started to make their move whether the law, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, would be funded but now it seems that efforts by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to sweep the legs out from under the divisive measure will be defeated.

Can you believe Congress exempted itself from Obamacare? Shows how they know the law is terrible and want to protect themselves from the consequences. That’s the general reaction to news that, indeed, the Office of Personnel Management will allow the government to make contributions to the health insurance of lawmakers and their aides, as first reported by Politico. That happens with the current plans and as happens with many private-sector plans.

The story notes that members of Congress and their staffs have to participate in health exchanges, thanks to a little-noticed provision enacted when the bill, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, was passed in 2010. The provision was meant to embarrass Democrats who advocated the initiative commonly called Obamacare, but Democrats embraced the idea of having to take part in the exchanges.

Trouble is, big employers — like the U.S. government — aren’t allowed to participate in the exchanges until 2017 and so the concern is that it will leave Congressional staffers on their own for three years during which they’ll have to buy insurance themselves.

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